PM to join Sweat, Dirt...Smells Like Work

[Alea Davenport]

37 Fall, 515

Alea had been working and living in the Sanctuary for half a season already, but she had mostly kept to herself, doing what she was told without comment and generally quietly avoiding contact with the other residents of the Sanctuary. It wasn't that she was unsocial, but it took her quite some time to adjust to her new situation. She just didn't have space in her brain for too many new things at once.

She still had a long way to go before she felt comfortable anywhere, but she was starting to get used to life at the Sanctuary at least. She'd been getting regularly fed, and she generally wasn't forced to do anything she really didn't like. Today, she was doing a task that she found oddly comforting, despite it's smell, due to the associations with one of the more positive phases of her life.

The shovel slid smoothly under the pile of horse dung, and Alea lifted it into the wheelbarrow with a small grunt of effort. She repeated the motion a few more times, pausing for a few seconds every couple of shovel-fuls to catch her breath and prevent her muscles from getting sore. It was relaxing, working by herself. she never had to worry about the impression she was giving other people, or wondering what judgments they were making about her in their own heads. That was why she tended to favor the times of day when the other Sanctuary residents were not about as much, and to choose tasks that minimized interaction with them.

However, her conniving could not keep her a stranger forever, and for whatever reason, this day found her working not too far from one of the city's myriad Blue Men.

[Duron]

Walking to the horse stall, Duron could tell from the pungent smell of the stall that it needed to changed rather quickly for the sake of animal occupying it. Opening the gate, he saw the white shinny horse munching away at some ever dwindling hay in the feeder. The horse looked up at him and snorted quietly when she recognized the akalak. The akalak lifted a hand and said tukant with a smile, “Hello I am just here to clean out your home. It a nice day outside, so let me take you out to the pastures.” The horse looked up to him and stared him. He wasn't sure if the horse could understand him or not, but he was curious if the horse felt more comfortable with him since he didn't sound or act aggressive. Regardless the horse just watched him as he slowly walked over and untied the thick rope from the peg. Holding the rope firmly in his right hand, the akalak slowly held his hand up and slowly inched it close to touch the horses face. Duron stopped his hand about a foot from her face and aloud her to get comfortable with his smell.

Duron bite his lip and waited a chime as he watched the horse lift her nose and take in a deep breath. When he saw the large nostrils move, he decided to take his hand away slowly and lead the horse out to the pasture. When he came back into the stables, he noticed another farmhand shoving manure out of another stall. Looking over at her, the tattooed akalak noticed them woman had long brown hair. He didn't want to stare, so he turned his attention back to his stall and picked up his pitchfork and started to sift the manure from the hay. When he separated the hay from the manure, he brought out to his wheel-barrel and deposited into the wagon. Looking at the woman again, Duron decided to be social and said to with a smile, “Hello! My name is Duron. I just started in the fall. What is your name?”

[Alea Davenport]

Alea, who was totally unprepared for social interaction at this time, flung her name at him like mizas at a mugger. "AleaDavenport!" she said a little too loudly and all as one word. Then, in an attempt to flee, she hefted the handles of her wheelbarrow and tried to spin it around, to take it to a dumping area.

What happened wasn't Alea's fault. Certainly, perhaps she'd filled the wheelbarrow a bit too full, and perhaps she did turn a bit too fast, but she would have been fine if it hand't been for that petched prankster horse. Alea had somehow forgotten that the giant monstrosity of a glowing mare was in the other stall, and this Gilding, sensing weakness, had snuck her nose right out to Alea's neck and let loose a terrifying whinny that sounded like five hundred mothers being brutally stabbed to death.

This--apart from nearly deafening the poor, maligned stable girl--distracted Alea at a crucial moment of balancing the over-filled wheelbarrow and, well...The end result was that the thing tipped over sideways and spilled manure all over Duron's boots.

Alea glanced slowly up at the Akalak, sick dread filling her stomach--right next to a burning coal of revenge, which she would exact on the wretched horse just as soon as she had made sure the blue man wasn't planning to exact revenge on her.

[Duron]

Walking over with a smile on his face, Duron was shocked when the woman blurted out her name, grabbed her wheel barrel and turned the opposite direction. The akalak was expecting a polite hello or nod in his general direction, but the woman seemed keen on getting far away from him as quick as possible. The first thought immediately went to the tattoos on his face. It was hard to start relationships when everyone around thinks you are going to go off the rails at any moment. Duron quickened his pace until he was standing by her wheel-barrel and said with a smile, “It nice to meet y.....!” He immediately started to swear out-loud in tukant as the wheel-barrel tipped over and the smelly content of the wagon emptied on his feet.

Immediately, the Aferan who was already annoyed at his day job started to curse loudly in the back of his mind, I called it, Duron! You would eventually get us waist deep in shyke , and now you are literally waist deep in it, brother! Clenching his jaw at his brother's taunts, the Cerulean didn't realizing that he was glaring at the poor frighten woman. The akalak stepped out of the manure, took a deep breath, walked back to his stall, and grabbed his shovel. Walking over to the pile of manure on the ground, the akalak stuck the metal spade into the pile of dung and started shoveling back into her wheel-barrel. Clenching his fists around the handle of the shovel, the tattooed akalak fought back to urge to hit the nearest thing or person with it. Unfortunately the nearest thing was Alea, the wheel-barrel, or the horse, so he closed his eyes and started to count back from twenty in his mind to try to calm his anger. However, Aferan suggested and everything went to hai, You know you want too, brother. Do it!

Duron widened his eyes at the horror of what Aferan suggested to do her. The akalak said without looking at her, “Excuse me, Alea...” Holding the shovel in his hand, Duron walked out behind the barn, started pacing back and forth, and started to talk to himself in tukant, “Aferan, I am in control not you!”

With one hand holding the shovel, the other hand held his head as his dark brother respond, It was a suggestion to release the anger brother. We both know holding it in can be detrimental to ones mental health.

Suddenly, he lifted the shovel and pointed at a imaginary image of his dark brother, and said in tukant, “Petch you! We both know you are the parasite in my mind!”

Aferan must of laughed for a good chime and said after a short pause in a emotionless voice, Parasite! I was the dominate one for years before you emerged and caught me off guard, so don't you dare say my mind like you own it. If I could have it my way, I would get rid of you permanently!

oocDuron is quite mentally unstable, so congratulations! Alea the first one to witness it!

[Alea Davenport]

OOCSadly, Alea doesn't not speak Tukant! Or mind-speak!

Alea wilted slightly under the man's glare, her cheeks turning red with embarrassment. Some people might be ridiculously nice and laugh the accident off, but unfortunately for Alea, the blue man's reaction was much more logical. She tried to help him shovel it back in, to show she hadn't done it on purpose, but she was after the first time her shovel clanged into his, she was worried about getting in his way, and she ineffectually picked at the bits around the edges, trying to help without getting in the way.

Then, he went outside and started screaming at himself. Alea didn't understand anything he was saying, but the feeling in the words was pretty clear. The Akalak was having one heck of a bad day. It showed a self-awareness and discipline that impressed Alea (not that that said much--Alea was allergic to discipline) When she was in a mood like that she generally turned violent. And while she usually didn't argue with herself out loud, his tone seemed familiar. She kept shoveling as she mused, but then she hit upon a brilliant idea!

Running around the barn, she found a sack and stuffed it full of straw. Then, she tied it onto the handle of her shovel. Walking outside, she found Duron still yelling unintelligibly at himself. As he paced away from her, she shoved the shovel into the dirt, letting it go to stand up on its own, the sack of straw a blog in the air.

When Duron turned toward her, she stepped back a few paces from her creation and said, "I made you a punching thing!" She wasn't sure whether to go for a smile or keep looking apologetic, so her face got stuck somewhere between the two.

[Duron]

Duron stopped and started to shake with rage when he heard those hateful words of his dark brother. He knew the darker half was not lying with his last statement. For a moment, Duron wished that he was never born to share a body with another soul especially a soul like his cursed brother. Giving into his rage, the Cerulean raised the shovel over his head and swung it down as hard as he could into the ground. It felt good punishing shoveling even though he wanted to punch his dark brother in the jaw. Looking at the shovel, the Cerulean said in tukant with a snarl, “Fortunately for everyone, brother! You aren't going anywhere. This is my body, and I will be damned if I allow you to take over once again!”

Aferan started to laugh again in his brother's counter of words and said simply, Was it so bad when I was in control? We had the love of our father and stepmother, and we were on track to have a successful life, but you were the selfish one, Duron. You were the one who waited years to appear and now my successes were squandered with your ill-timed and rather late appearance. Now we have to live the life as a Cerulean dog! This petching “wonderful” life is all your doing, Duron. Unfortunately, we have to both live with it now.

Duron was about to respond, but suddenly he heard the sound of movement behind him, and the tall akalak said in common without turning around, “Alea, please go back to the barn. I need to sort things out alone.” When heard Alea say that she made a “punchy thing”, Duron threw the shovel to the ground and whirled around with rage in his eyes as he looked at the woman. He wasn't angry at her at all, but he was all emotions and adrenaline at the moment. The akalak looked at the woman and at her make-shift punching bag and pictured his brother's smiling face on it. Stalking towards the punching bag, Duron clenched both hands into fist and punched straight forward into the middle of the bag with his right fist. Immediately, he brought back his right fist and swung his left fist into the middle of the bag. The akalak started to feel his rage start wane as he continued his assault on the bag with another two punch combo. When he felt the rage subsided, he looked at Alea and said obviously winded, “Thank you, Alea. I just wanted you to know that I wasn't mad at you when I stormed out...”

[Alea Davenport]

Alea stayed to watch Duron's fight with the punchy thing, though she still stood a bit out of the way, out of respect for his anger. He reminded her of Banir, in a way, and when Banir got angry, smart people kept their distance. Alea wasn't necessarily scared, but she knew that people like Banir who got angry sometimes often felt bad afterwards, and she didn't know Duron well enough to be able to convince him that she'd gotten into a scrap with him on purpose.

Alea watched Duron's punched closely, and emulated ducking and diving out of the way, as if he were aiming for her (though of course she was well out of his reach). His fighting seemed a bit unimaginative to her. That could of course be because his target was a rather small one. (There were no legs to bite, for example.) But still, just a couple of forward facing punches. No kicks, no headbutts, not even swinging his arms at it to try and knock its block off. Granted there wasn't much you could do with a stationary opponent that wasn't trying to hurt you right back, but she still got the feeling that in a fight with Duron, it would be up to her to make it interesting.

When he finished and spoke to her, she snapped out of her reverie, then giggled at his apology. "Well of course you weren't mad at me, silly. If you were you'd be yelling at me instead of the air."

She walked over and pulled her shovel out of the ground. The bag of straw was already falling off; she hadn't attached it very securely. "Now, if everything's all right out here, I believe I need to go and have a word with a certain horse," she said with a hard glint in her eye and a crooked set to her grin. Then she turned her back and headed back into the barn.